| Summary: | The simultaneous improvement of protein content (PC) and grain yield (GY) in bread wheat (<i>Triticum aestivum</i> L.) under low-input management enables the development of resource-use efficient varieties that combine high grain yield potential with desirable end-use quality. However, the complex mechanisms of genotype, management, and growing season, and the negative correlation between PC and GY complicate the simultaneous improvement of PC and GY under low-input management. To identify favorable genotypes for PC and GY under low-input management, this study used 209 wheat varieties, including strong gluten, medium-strong gluten, medium gluten, weak gluten, winter, semi-winter, weak-spring, and spring types, which has been promoted from the 1980s to the 2010s. Allelic genotyping, performed using kompetitive allele-specific polymerase chain reaction (KASP) technology, found 69 types of GY-PC allelic combinations in the tested materials. Field trials were conducted with two growing season treatments (2018–2019 and 2019–2020) and two management treatments (conventional management and low-input management). Multi-environment analysis of variance showed that genotype, management, and growing season had extremely substantial effects on wheat GY and PC, respectively, and the interaction of management × growing season also had extremely significant effects on wheat GY. According to the three-sigma rule of the normal distribution, the GY of wheat varieties <i>Liangxing 66</i> and <i>Xinmai 18</i> were stable among the top 15.87% of all tested materials with high GY, and their PC reached mean levels under low-input management, but also stably expressed high GY and high PC under conventional management, which represents a great development potential. These varieties can be used as cultivars of interest for breeding because <i>TaSus1-7A</i>, <i>TaSus1-7B</i>, <i>TaGW2-6A</i>, and <i>TaGW2-6B</i>, which are related to GY, and <i>Glu-B3</i>, which is related to PC, carry favorable alleles, among which Hap-1/2, the allele of <i>TaSus1-7A</i>, and Glu-B3b/d/g/i, the allele of <i>Glu-B3</i>, can be stably expressed. Our results may be used to facilitate the development of high-yielding and high-quality wheat varieties under low-input management, which is critical for sustainable food and nutrition security.
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